Final Chord (1936)

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Movie
Original title Final chord
Country of production German Empire
original language German
Publishing year 1936
length 102 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Detlef Sierck
script Detlef Sierck
Kurt Heuser
production Bruno Duday for UFA
music Kurt Schröder
camera Robert Baberske
cut Milo Harbich
occupation

The final chord is a film drama , melodrama and music film by the director Detlef Sierck from 1936. Maria von Tasnady plays the main role of the young mother Hanna Müller, who has to leave her baby Peter behind in Germany on the flight to America.

action

Hanna Müller and her husband commit an insurance fraud in order to enrich themselves financially. When the fraud is discovered, both see no other way out than to flee Germany to avoid prosecution by the authorities. Because neither of them know exactly what to expect in their refuge, America, they leave their baby Peter behind in an orphanage in Germany, where it is later adopted by a strange family.

At first, the two found a new home in America, but Hanna never gave up the thought of their child who was left behind in Germany.

At a New Year's Eve party in New York , Hanna learns that her husband has been found dead in Central Park . After the investigating police considered suicide as very likely as the cause of death , Hanna decides to return to Germany and look for her child. First she pays a visit to the orphanage where she left her child at the time and finds out that Peter has been taken in as a foster child by the wealthy Garvenberg family.

She introduces herself to the house of the Garvenberg family and applies there to be a nanny without identifying herself as Peter's mother. Your application is successful: the landlord Erich Garvenberg, a famous conductor, accepts you into an employment relationship.

As the film progresses, it becomes clear that the inclusion of the child Peter is primarily due to the efforts of Erich Garvenberg: He wanted to reduce the constant marital disputes between him and his wife Charlotte. However, this hope turns out to be false; the two are still very divided. It gradually becomes clear that his wife Charlotte is having an affair with the astrologer Gregor Carl-Otto (portrayed in the film by Albert Lippert ).

Hanna turns out to be a good nanny. She soon won Peter's heart. The landlord, Erich, also begins to develop feelings for the lovely and peace-loving Hanna.

The story of the film takes a turn when the fact comes to light who Hanna is and why she had to leave Germany. Charlotte, the wife of the landlord, then terminates the employment relationship with her with immediate effect. Hanna leaves her workplace humiliated. Now the plot of the film is picking up speed: Charlotte is found dead. Police investigations reveal that Charlotte died of an overdose of the pain reliever morphine. The suspicion of murder immediately falls on Hanna, who already has a criminal past. As a result, she is arrested and interrogated by the police.

In the subsequent criminal proceedings, however, it turns out that Hanna is not to blame for the death of her boss Charlotte Garvenberg. Only the housekeeper Freese, who is also employed in the Garvenbergs' household, knows the true circumstances of her employer's death. Charlotte Garvenberg herself was about to take an overdose of the pain reliever in order to escape her own life, which for her was more argument than joy. The housekeeper Freese found out about this in a personal conversation with her employer.

Now that the circumstances of death have been clarified, nothing stands in the way of a wedding between Hanna and her employer Erich Garvenberg.

Publication dates

The film premiered on June 27, 1936 at the Capitol in Dresden . Other publication dates (abroad) were September 9, 1936 in the USA , October 2, 1936 in Denmark , October 19, 1936 in Sweden , November 15, 1936 in Finland , April 4, 1937 in Seville, Spain and the November 8, 1937 in Portugal .

Production notes

The shooting location was Berlin , the shooting took place between February and April 1936. Erich Kobler supported Detlef Sierck in directing, Walter Pindter and Bruno Stephan assisted Robert Baberske in camera work. Erich Kettelhut was responsible for the production design and Erich Holder was in charge of the film production .

Reviews

“Melodrama expert Detlef Sierck, who left Nazi Germany a year later and made a career for himself as Douglas Sirk in America, very cleverly incorporated opera scenes into the film, which on the one hand slowed down the plot, but on the other hand also emphasized it. For this concept, the film was awarded the prize for best musical film in Venice in 1936. The content of the Sirk film " The Last Chord ", which he shot in Hollywood in 1957, has nothing to do with "Final Chord". "

- Kino.de

Others

For the director Detlef Sierck, this was his first film that was assigned to the film genre of melodrama . A year after the film was released, he emigrated to the USA because he was being persecuted by the Nazi regime at the time. There he began a successful career under his new name Douglas Sirk in the center of the US film industry Hollywood .

The Nazi regime checked the film for any content that might be detrimental to the regime and, with resolution B.42607, imposed a youth ban on it on June 10, 1936 as part of the film censorship customary at the time .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Final chord (1936) - Release Info - IMDb. In: imdb.com. Retrieved July 7, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b final chord. In: filmportal.de. Retrieved July 7, 2015 .
  3. ^ Final chord (1936) - IMDb. In: imdb.com. Retrieved July 7, 2015 .
  4. ^ Final chord film 1936 · Trailer · Criticism · KINO.de. In: kino.de. Retrieved July 7, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Douglas Sirk - Biography - IMDb. In: imdb.com. Retrieved July 7, 2015 .